The Four Color Media Monitor

Variety reports from the SDCC on where Japan's anime industry is going lately, seeing investments from firms that haven't typically dealt with animation until now:

Ahead of a weekend when Asian content will be making a big impact at San Diego Comic-Con, two of Japan’s largest industrial and financial conglomerates have quietly begun to invest in Japanese animation, the hottest part of the country’s film and TV industry.

Marubeni, which has roots in cereals, chemicals and paper but has diversified to become a trading giant and Japan’s 13th largest corporation, says it is targeting the booming manga (comics) and anime (animated movies and series) markets through a new venture with Shogakukan, a leading publisher.

Mizuho Securities, another part of the Mizuho keiretsu (a form of business alliance common in Japan), revealed this month that it will launch an animation film fund. The brokerage will raise finance from institutions and wealthy individuals in lots starting at JPY300 million ($200,000) apiece and says that it aims to raise $15 million by the end of the year.

Japanese animation is certainly enjoying a period of unprecedented success. Titles such as Shogakukan and Shin-Ei Animation’s “Doraemon,” Shuiesha and Ufotable’s “Demon Slayer” and “Detective Conan” and “One Piece” have become powerful global franchises. Recently too, Japanese animated films including Studio Ghibli’s “The Boy and the Heron” and CoMix Wave-Toho’s “Suzume” have proven themselves capable of $100 million single-territory theatrical feats.

Yes, but if they succumb to political correctness as seen in the USA nowadays, they won't see success for much longer. Of course that's not saying the Japanese can't make mistakes. But if they cave to the kind of outrageous PC that's practically bred in universities today, that's where they'll be making a serious error, artistically or otherwise. However, if I'm reading the following correctly, something good is to be found here, yet simultaneously, something bad:

Institutional funds were a bigger part of the Japanese scene in the early 2000s, but have since given way to the dominant production committee system. These committees are clusters of companies either in the entertainment business or closely allied to it, such as ad giants Dentsu and Hakuhodo, that agree to share risk.

The production committee system creates stability, but it has been criticized for slow decision making, scaring off international co-productions and keeping budgets artificially low. The per film, special purpose vehicles that committees frequently set up ring-fence financial risk but may also discourage reinvestment.

In recent years, however, multiple factors are causing an erosion of the risk-averse committees. These include the growing international success of Japanese anime, Sony’s acquisition and rejuvenation of specialty anime streamer Crunchyroll and the arrival of Netflix as another major investor in the sector.

If committees aren't attached or forced upon most productions, that's good, but it depends mainly on whether they're connected with the artistic development. Several weeks ago, I'd linked to a Bustle interview where actress Dakota Johnson said there's independent movies now employing committees, not unlike major blockbusters today, and that's bad for artistic freedom. Any Japanese producer who allows committees to dictate how a film or TV show is developed, laced with severe PC, is not doing a favor for anybody. And again, does Netflix provide a good omen? Nope. It also says here:

The threats posed by overseas rivals and AI-assisted production — and the current opportunities for diversification of Japanese anime into new markets and online formats — are catalysts for transformation of the sector that will require funding.

Now is that really a good idea to rely upon AI for future animation development? The simple answer is "no". AI is not guaranteed to draw you a scene (or write a screenplay) in the most picture perfect or exact way you'd like to envision it, and that's why it pays for a human animator to do it. Oh yes, and it also pays to provide the employees with satisfying wages, recalling having once read in the early 2000s that the USA cartoon industry didn't offer the best payments to employees, and the Japanese industry can also have problems like that. AI cannot replace human talent in every way, shape and form, and for anybody who's in it for the glory, it's an insult to sideline them for the sake of technology that may not be as cheap we think. It also risks leaving potentially talented people unemployed.

So it remains to be seen if Japan will stand firm on artistic freedom. If there's any improvement needed from a cultural perspective, it'll only be accomplished through making proper distinctions. It certainly won't be made by adhering to the PC coming out of the USA and/or the west these days.

Labels: conventions, Europe and Asia, manga and anime, sales, technology

The AP Wire's given a report from the San Diego Comic-Con, and it looks like yet again, comics have little emphasis at this specific festival, if at all:

With the highly anticipated release of “ Deadpool & Wolverine,” Marvel is set to be a strong presence, from the costumes fans don to the panels that draw the longest lines. The Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman-led feature is the first and only Disney-backed Marvel movie of the year. The panel promoting the film and celebrating its release Thursday is expected to draw thousands to the convention’s famed Hall H.

Marvel is also expected to announce news teasing their upcoming titles in their “Phase 5” cinematic universe plan and beyond, with Marvel president Kevin Feige as the only confirmed speaker on their Saturday panel. He will be joined by special guests, who may include stars of upcoming Marvel titles like “Captain America: Brave New World,” “Thunderbolts(asterisk)” and “The Fantastic Four.”

These films, as noted before, are bound to be quite woke, but in any event, this is an example of the emphasis put upon movies instead of comics. And that's not all:

Part of the draw for many Comic-Con attendees is the plethora of merchandise available to purchase on the exhibit floor. Booths selling collectibles from Marvel, DC, Star Wars, Lego, Hasbro, Sony, Mattel and dozens of other companies and franchises will take over the sprawling venue. Visitors can also expect some free items and giveaways on the floor.

Collectibles? If there's anything comics-related there, that could be the speculator market in motion, of course. What good is all this merchandise compared to reading material? The only real mention of anything comics-related here is the following, which is short and non-commital:

The “Artists’ Alley” in the exhibit hall also features dozens of rising creators selling art prints, comics, toys, books, collectibles and more.

Let's at least hope that alludes to independent products, but if said alley is one of the few halls or the only place at the convention center where you could find actual comics, then they're not committed to the art form in any genuine format.

It is telling though, if the Deadpool/Wolverine team-up is the only Marvel movie produced this year, certainly through Disney. That can indicate enthusiasm for the film franchise has waned. But if the SDCC's continued focus on movies is any suggestion, they're still not turning any serious focus back to comicdom again.

Labels: Captain America, conventions, Fantastic Four, licensed products, marvel comics, msm propaganda, sales

While much of the mainstream comics specialty press continues to maintain radio silence on the sexual assault accusations against Neil Gaiman, Fandom Pulse has reported there's more insiders and writing workshops that are distancing themselves from him, or already have:

To add more bubbles to the bath, a publishing industry insider has spoken out about Neil Gaiman on X. Michael Matheson posted, "The pattern talked about in recent allegations is decades-long. Power imbalance frequently at the heart of what Neil does. At Clarion, there's the Gaiman Rule for instructors, named after Neil: 'Don't sleep with the students.'"

He continued noting something potentially worse for the author about his being kept away from young writing students at another course, "Neil is (I think unofficially?) barred from teaching at a particular workshop for young writers that caps out attendant age at 19. Not naming that one because I was told it in confidence nearly a decade ago when I was reprinting a story of Neil's in an anthology."

Matheson also points out how the industry protects Neil Gaiman, saying, "It's not a question of 'if,' the silence surrounding Gaiman for years is about who wants to lose their career by tilting a lance at one of genre publishing's sacred (cash) cows. That Gaiman cloaked himself in feminist/ally rhetoric for ages also made it harder to air things."

Having an unspoken rule about not sleeping with students named after Neil Gaiman at Clarion is a huge red flag. Clarion is where writers go to live for six weeks to workshop and learn from teachers like Neil Gaiman. The workshop produces a lot of writers in traditional publishing and is seen as a rite of passage for a fast track to get into places like Clarke's World or Tor Books.

With a second writer's workshop allegedly banning Neil Gaiman because it's geared toward young students, it appears the industry knows the 62-year-old author's proclivities are much worse than they seem on the surface.

Even with this information coming to light, no one in mainstream entertainment media reports what's occurring with Neil Gaiman, leaving the public unaware of his alleged wrongdoings. One wonders how much bathwater needs to be put into the tub for this situation to boil over.

There's an important point to be made that, even if insiders have been keeping Gaiman away from their students, the silence of the press, mainstream, specialty or otherwise, only makes it worse, though it does make clear they realize the allegations have considerable validity, hence, their silence on what one of their fellow leftists has done. Of course, even Harvey Weinstein got away with his offensive antics for a long time, and it was only years later in his career that he finally met justice for his crimes, though he's come close to getting away with it recently after a mistrial was declared in the case filed against him in New York. It'll remain to be seen if the prosecution does a better job this time.

Now, since we're on the subject, I also took a look at what a leftist writer named Monica Byrne, somebody who's familiar with Gaiman, had to say about this scandal:

A fun thing is that, by staying silent about the women who’ve gone on record about Neil Gaiman, SFF authors/outlets are ceding the discourse to transphobes. Which further hurts the women who were brave enough to speak up & the women who’re thinking about speaking up.

Fuck you.

— Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) July 22, 2024

I’m still reconciling the fact that someone I knew as a kindly, bumbling, absent-minded older author friend is actually a sadistic serial rapist of young women. It is honestly very hard to reconcile.

But I don’t use that as an excuse to not believe them.

— Monica Byrne (@monicabyrne13) July 22, 2024

She may be willing to speak out, but it's regrettable she's siding with transsexual ideology, because there've been practitioners of that lifestyle who have committed sexual abuse, with prisons being where women are most vulnerable to these atrocities. If that form of abuse doesn't concern these leftists, then their current condemnations of Gaiman aren't altruistic so much as they're opportunistic. If he decided overnight to take up that kind of identity politic, would they suddenly fall radio silent, allowing that to serve as a shield for his evil deeds?

For now, here's more important signs that Gaiman's career is washing up on a rocky shore, and in the past few weeks since the allegations against Gaiman first went public, he's vanished from social media, and it's bound to be a while before he returns to writing there. Hopefully, DC and Marvel will stop paying him residuals for reprints of his work, and his book publishers will drop him from their partnerships.

Labels: misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, violence

ArtNet reports a parody cartoonist lost a lawsuit in France over parodies he drew of George Remi's Tintin series:

A French appeals court has ruled against an artist who claimed parody rights to recontextualize the beloved comic book character Tintin and others from the series “The Adventures of Tintin.”

Belgian company Tintinimaginatio filed a lawsuit against artist Xavier Marabout in French court over his artworks that reimagine the character created by the Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi under the pen name Hergé in 1929. Marabout, who has been creating work as a parodist since 2004, has become known for his pieces staging Tintin in scenes inspired by Edward Hopper paintings, according to court documents translated from French.

Marabout’s work has been seen publicly since 2014 at various exhibitions, including one titled “Tintintamarre.” The company learned about a sale of the artist’s paintings held online in 2015 that included “unauthorized adaptations of various elements” extracted from Hergé’s work and sent him a formal notice requesting he withdraw his work from sale.

I suppose if there's one valid issue the Belgian company may have, it's whether it's appropriate to sell this stuff. Beyond that, it's ludicrous to go after the guy over satirical illustrations. But if you want to know of a really surprising reason the company overseeing publication of the Tintin comics took issue with anybody they felt was violating copyrights, here's something really odd:

“The humorous effect is established by the reversal of the situations in which Tintin is usually portrayed,” Marabout argued in legal documents. It is also not the first time Tintin has been recontextualized: in 1980, Jan Bucquoy wrote an erotic parody comic strip titled “The Sex Life of Tintin.”

But Tintinimaginatio appealed in October 2023, stating that the use of “sexy women” distorts Hergé’s work and that the lower court applied an “excessively broad” interpretation of “humorous intent,” among other legal arguments.

I'd heard years ago that Remi may have originally intended to make Tintin homosexual, and assuming it's true, what Remi may have done is only a form of disrespect for his own creation. Either way, at the time Tintin was originally created, there were some very galling restrictions on how women could be portrayed in European comicdom, that only were shed by the late 50s-early 60s. This certainly was the case when it came to anything considered children's fare. If the Belgian publisher is saying Tintin can't have a girlfriend/wife, seriously, that's low. Ditto if they're saying comedy's unsuitable for stuff like this.

The appeals court decision could yet be overturned by the judges of the Court of Cassation, and Marabout said he intends to appeal to the top court “to defend freedom of expression and the notion of parody.”

I honestly hope he does, if only because Remi's approach to women - or lack thereof - is one of the reasons why Tintin hasn't aged well. Considering it became easier to depict a woman as a girlfriend/wife, along with romance themes, by the 1960s, as Barbarella's creation can indicate, you'd think Remi could've taken the challenge of adding a lady for Tintin to romance, and it didn't have to all be limited to just friendships with captain Haddock, professor Calculus and the twin detectives Thompson and Thomson. (Not to mention the unfortunate characterization of Madame Castafiore as an annoying singer.) Someday, the Tintin copyright in Europe will expire into public domain, and then it'll be easier to do something that might actually respect the character more than his creator did.

Labels: comic strips, Europe and Asia, history, misogyny and racism, politics

A writer at Softonic tells us that a new Marvel event called "Blood Hunt" depicts Latveria's despot acquiring powers from the Sorceror Supreme so that the former can supposedly save the world, not the latter:

In Marvel comics, there are three maxims: Most everyone has been part of The Avengers (about 125 heroes, more or less), dying is only temporary, and the position of Sorcerer Supreme changes from time to time. Although we all have Doctor Strange in mind as the Sorcerer Supreme, the truth is that over the years characters like Doctor Druid, Jericho, Clea, and even Loki have succeeded him in the role. And now it’s time to give it to someone else. Again.

What "truth" are we talking about, exactly? Most of these storylines came post-2000, and hardly count as anything, especially given that they're fictional. Stories like the one where Loki took over Stephen Strange's role were particularly forced. They've added nothing to the history legacy of Strange, let alone Marvel, and have only served as a form of shock value narrative.

Doctor Doom had been ruling Latveria undisturbed for a long time, but now he’s back for ‘Blood Hunt’, the current vampire saga that has the entire Marvel Universe in checkmate. Luckily, Doom can help fight the bloodsuckers, and for that he only needs a lot of magic. A whole lot. So much that Stephen Strange must transfer to him the power of Sorcerer Supreme.

And yes, we know not only that he’ll do it, but also that along the way he will take a piece of Clea’s soul, thus inaugurating the comic ‘Doctor Doom: Sorcerer Supreme’ in 2025. What could go wrong? Additionally, this happens during the same year ‘The Fantastic Four’ movie is released… and by now we should already know that both things go hand in hand. There’s no way to know what Kevin Feige is thinking, but it’s probably going to be pure magic. Time will tell.

Well the wise reader hopefully won't be waiting up. This is little more than another example of putting villains in a "heroic" role their past resume makes them unsuitable for, and if Doom could actually battle vampires, how can't Strange do the same? There were plenty of times he was seen fighting monsters until the late 90s, and now we're supposed to be rooting for a criminal like Doom to be portrayed doing the same? No way. At this point, we're also way past the point we could anticipate a Fantastic Four movie no matter the merit. If memory serves, any FF movie waiting in the wings could end up being as woke as anything else that's been produced of recent. This looks like yet another exercise in pointlessness at the expense of the actual heroes, all for the sake of putting specific villains in implausible roles.

There's also another article at Softonic about Lois Lane taking the role of Superwoman again in the pages of Superman, and this one's quite a puff piece too, with a certain inaccuracy regarding history:

Lois Lane first appeared in a comic book in June 1938, 86 years ago, and, as you can guess, she has experienced all kinds of things and suffered misfortunes over the decades, especially in the “golden age” where she had her own comic book title, which lasted 137 issues and featured some of the most bizarre covers in the history of comics. And the new modern times haven’t exactly forgotten about her…

Sorry, but that was the Silver/Bronze Ages where Lois had her own title (Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane, 1958-74), and when it was cancelled, any stand-alone stories for Lois in the pre-Crisis era continued at least until 1982 in the Superman Family anthology. This is another telling example of somebody who's not a historian misleading us.

The new comic series, Superman, has been announcing for a while that a new Superwoman was coming who would fight alongside our hero, but her identity would be very mysterious…if it weren’t for the comic’s own synopsis revealing that it is Lois Lane. And this is not the first time she has gained powers: in fact, she has already been Superwoman not long ago, in 2016, during the “Rebirth” era.

But hey, the first time the superheroine’s suit was tested was in issue 60 of “Action Comics” and the most memorable one was in the epic “All-Star Superman.” So, it’s not a surprise to anyone that now, suddenly, she has powers again. In the end, in the comics of DC and Marvel, everything changes… to going back to being the same.

But not to being entertaining in a plausible way. Something they won't ever admit. It's just another example from modern times of a civilian cast member being forcibly shoehorned into a superpowered role, and potentially costume too. And put out by bad writers/artists/editors who don't have a clue how to mend the damage done since the turn of the century so things could be plausible and entertaining again. All-Star Superman, IIRC, was a product of the overrated Grant Morrison, and anything he's written is also best forgotten. And why is Lois becoming a costumed heroine such a big deal, when Kara Zor-El serves the purpose far better as Supergirl?

Labels: bad editors, crossoverloading, dc comics, Doctor Strange, dreadful writers, golden calf of villainy, marvel comics, msm propaganda, Supergirl, Superman, women of dc, women of marvel

Writer Jim Zub is voicing displeasure with how Facebook works:

.@ColleenDoran posted a screenshot from her Facebook page analytics. Every time she includes a link to content outside FB's walled garden, the algorithm hides it from the majority of her fans.

If she posts a photo/artwork and no link, the views are 10-15x greater. pic.twitter.com/tKURq2RGJj

— Jim Zub 🎲 (@JimZub) July 17, 2024

If you post only text or a picture/photo, more people get to see it but you also have minimal ability to move interest anywhere else.

It's the same here and with almost every social media outlet. The internet as siloed slices instead of the holistic whole.

— Jim Zub 🎲 (@JimZub) July 17, 2024

That's why so many creators are frustrated and turning back to direct email newsletters or self-hosted blogs.

My site is my name dot com. From there you can sign up for my direct email updates. For better or for worse, that's the most consistent way to find out what I'm doing.

— Jim Zub 🎲 (@JimZub) July 17, 2024

He also posted this on Blue Sky, if it matters. So it turns out even left-wingers, comics creators or otherwise, are finding FB is not going to respect them any more than right-wingers. Well, at least this might have the effect of prompting some to turn back to promoting their work and commentary on blogs, which is far more effective than a social network where typing space is limited to just 200 characters or so. It'll be interesting to see what Zub and others of his ilk plan to do in that sense. Maybe it'll have the effect of convincing them that too many political rants don't pay off if they really want to appeal to a wider audience.

Labels: moonbat artists, politics, technology

That's what Forbes is reporting, as it turns out one of the biggest flops in the Marvel movie franchise had quite a case of employees not receiving equal pay:

Disney has lifted the curtain on the disparity in pay between workers on its 2023 sci-fi superhero movie The Marvels.

Based on characters from Marvel Comics, the film starred Teyonah Parris, Iman Vellani and Oscar-winner Brie Larson as super-powered crime-fighters who unintentionally switch places after coming into contact with an other-worldly artefact.

The movie was the 33rd instalment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the first to feature women in all the main roles as the trio of leading ladies squared off against an alien antagonist played by British actress Zawe Ashton. It was directed by Nia DaCosta, who helmed 2021 horror hit Candyman, making it the first Marvel movie with a Black woman director. Although it was a showcase for diversity in front of the camera, it was a different story behind the scenes.

Filings from Disney show that just 34.8% of the 621 crew members who worked on the movie were women and their average hourly pay was 23.8% lower than men’s.

[...] The information about The Marvels was collected on April 5, 2021 shortly before filming began. Not only does the data show that the average hourly pay of women on the crew was 23.8% less than men received but it was even lower when taking the middle number if hourly pay is ranked from highest to lowest. Using that measurement, women's hourly pay was 25.2% lower than men’s. What's more, just 17% of the jobs in the highest hourly pay category were held by women and they only occupied 26.1% of the positions in the second-highest hourly pay category.

Disney was recently hit with a civil rights complaint accusing it of sidelining white men in order to ensure that half of its actors and creatives come from "underrepresented groups" so it would seem logical for it to have ensured that a similar target was set for women behind the scenes on The Marvels as it was such a prominent showcase for diversity.

It seems like a missed opportunity for Disney which has instead become an own-goal. It's especially surprising as the company is also currently facing a class-action lawsuit alleging that it paid female workers less than their male counterparts.

The lawsuit was lodged by approximately 9,000 female Disney employees in California making it the largest ever class-action case certified under California’s Equal Pay Act, which prevents gender-based pay discrimination. It covers employees from the Disneyland theme park and hotels, the cruise line, the Disney film and TV studios, ABC, Marvel, Lucasfilm and other units aside from Pixar, ESPN, Hulu, Fox and FX.

Wow, the movie may have been one of the biggest woke jokes of the Marvel movie series, but this is really taking the joke to a whole new low level, as it makes clear nothing's changed regarding Hollywood's whole approach to employment and wages. In other words, it was all just a big virtue-signal that didn't add up to anything.

Both the Capt. Marvel movie and The Marvels sequel look to be forgotten in coming years, but they may be remembered as the hugest hypocrisies in terms of employment wages for women. Maybe this is why it's better to just work on independent movies and not on big budget blockbusters whose makers, mostly likely comprised of committees, aren't interested in serious equality for women.

Labels: marvel comics, misogyny and racism

It looks like another man working in the animation industry has been jailed for serious offenses. USA Today reports (via Breitbart):

A Cartoon Network series creator has been arrested on child pornography charges.

Kyle Carrozza, an animator who created the television series "Mighty Magiswords" and worked on multiple Cartoon Network, Disney, PBS Kids and Nickelodeon shows, was arrested in Burbank, California, on June 20 on two child pornography possession charges, according to Burbank Police Department arrest records.

[...] After a review of Carrozza's case, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office filed one count of possession of over 600 images of child pornography, the department said.

[...] Carrozza, 45, has worked as a storyboard artist and animator on several cartoons, including "Adventure Time," the 2020 "Animaniacs" reboot, "Doc McStuffins" (and its miniseries spinoff "The Doc Files"), "Fish Hooks," "Fanboy & Chum Chum," "Danger Rangers" and "Teen Titans Go!"

He also worked as an animator on "The Spongebob Movie: Sponge Out of Water."

Well he sure has tarnished plenty of children's cartoons with his evil deeds. How many more of these perverts will turn up in the animation and comics medium? I'd feared several years ago crimes like these would turn up increasingly, and this scandal is really dealing a crippling blow to the industries they may never recover from. Let's hope Carrozza gets a long prison sentence for what he's done.

Labels: animation, misogyny and racism

Before we get to the op-eds in focus here, The Wrap just announced that Sabra will be of Israeli background in the upcoming Capt. America film:

Marvel superhero Sabra will be Israeli in Marvel’s upcoming “Captain America: Brave New World,” according to two insiders with knowledge of the project. The studio had been accused of erasing the character’s Israeli background after it became known that in the film’s depiction, she’s no longer an agent of Mossad as she is in the comics.

Israeli actress Shira Haas plays the character, whose name in the film is Ruth Bat-Seraph and who speaks with an Israeli accent, insiders told TheWrap. As depicted in “Captain America: Brave New World” — which finds Anthony Mackie taking the Captain America mantle from Chris Evans — Bat-Seraph is an Israeli former Black Widow who now serves as a high-ranking U.S. government official in President Ross’ (Harrison Ford) administration.

The Black Widow program is the one that trained Scarlett Johansson’s assassin Natasha Romanoff in previous Marvel movies, and which was revealed to have wide international reach in the 2021 film “Black Widow.”

The American Jewish Committee responded to TheWrap’s reporting in a statement: “If true, we are glad that Marvel recognized how essential Sabra’s Israeli identity is to her character. Superheroes have enough things to worry about. Identity politics shouldn’t be one of them.”

I just hope they realize that, despite seemingly going back on what they previously implied would be the case, this movie could still end up being hostile to Israel, and lenient on Islam. In fact, if this movie reduces Sabra to a non-superhuman with merely training in combat and firearms, lacking the flight and quill-shooting power she's had in the comics, isn't that very weak regardless?

Now recently, after the previous news, A writer at the Jerusalem Post addressed the controversy Marvel/Disney caused with their cowardice when it was assumed they were removing Sabra's Israeli background from the 4th Captain America movie to appease Islamic antisemites. Though it was written before the current news, it still bears what to consider:

The Mossad mutant super agent character Ruth Bat-Seraph is now just another Russian spy, apparently also no longer identified by the alter-ego Sabra, which is based on a term used to compare Israelis to the prickly pear of the same name.

Given Marvel's tendency to apply retroactive continuity to its comics series so that the source material reflects its film and television universe, it is not impossible that Sabra's Israeli identity could be retconned accordingly.

Marvel and Disney have long championed diversity, inclusion, and representation in their content and characters. They have accordingly ensured that people from a wide variety of backgrounds and identities have been depicted in their films and television shows.

While Jewish creators like Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created many of Marvel's most popular characters, Jewish heroes aren't acceptable among the inheritors of the company. Israeli actors like Shira Haas or Gal Gadot can be cast as a former Russian super spy turned political advisor or a Greek demi-goddess turned superhero, but Disney and Marvel finds their true identities to be politically and culturally distasteful enough to violate their priority principles. The Hollywood standard of representation does not seem to apply to Israelis, who are apparently too controversial to be heroes, super or otherwise.

The idea behind the diversity and inclusion media principles is that people can only identify and sympathize with a character if they share the same skin color or religion. Superheroes can only inspire and instill higher values if they look just like us.

While appearance and identity are important enough for Marvel and Disney to revoke unfavorable backgrounds like that of Israelis, if anything is to be understood from the quality and success of recent entries into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the studio has forgotten what truly makes a hero admirable: their actions. The October 7 war may have made Israelis too controversial for Hollywood, but it is the actions of Israelis during this period that have shown how heroes act. [...]

What inspires Israelis is not dictated by the whims of Disney's political correctness or Marvel's ironic cowardice, but by the actions of heroes like Arnon Zamora, the Counterterrorism Unit commando Chief Inspector who gave his life to rescue the Hamas hostages Shlomi Ziv, Andrey Kozlov, Almog Meir, and Noa Argamani on June 8. Israelis don't need others to depict them as heroes when its is Lior Levi, a MDA paramedic who treated the October 7 wounded while under gunfire that best represents the nation. It is people like Bedouin gas station attendant Masad Armilat, who rushed out to rescue wounded victims and outwit Hamas terrorists, that show that anyone can be a hero.

A vital point is also made that identifying according to specific background really is laughable, and the whole notion that's the only way you can appeal to an audience has actually made things worse over time. And doesn't removing Sabra's powers and even costume dampen the impact in any event? By the way, don't be shocked if Armenian backgrounds for characters in a Hollywood movie are also considered too controversial and political for them at this point.

There's also more commentary on this at the Jewish Chronicle (via Breitbart):

Marvel’s Sabra, real name Ruth Ben Seraph was born near Jerusalem and was brought up on a special kibbutz run by the Israeli government, and worked for the Tel Aviv police. Ruth - nicknamed Sabra - was the first superhuman agent created to serve the Mossad. She wore a blue and white costume. Everything about her was Jewish and Israeli.

Despite this, Sabra's early appearances were very poorly written by her own creator, Bill Mantlo, relying largely on cheap, stereotypical setups, right down to how the Hulk arrived at a port in Tel Aviv rather than Haifa, since the former's isn't built for cargo vessels like the latter's is. Curiously enough, when the Arabian Knight appeared next issue, Mantlo's writing depicted him more favorably, and no comment was offered on how the guy's 3 polygamous wives were wearing chadors (but the Knight himself was barechested?). Oddly enough, in Contest of Champions, the Knight made an objectionable comment about not wanting to work with a Jewess, but even that was still very sloppy, and he got hold of an item they were after anyway. Based on how Sabra was depicted, one could wonder if her being a product of the Mossad and/or government was form of negativity too. Some later renditions may have depicted Sabra more respectably, but it still marks a very poor example of writing in the Marvel universe in the past century.

Inevitably the decision to introduce Sabra into a Marvel film - Captain America: A Brave New World – caused controversy. People started shouting about a boycott as soon as the film was announced. But now the trailer is out, and a different group of people are shouting. Sabra (though played by Israeli actress Shira Haas) doesn’t work for Mossad and doesn’t seem to be Israeli at all. Instead she is a former Russian operative, now working for the American government.

In fact, Marvel’s decision to drop Sabra’s Israeli identity predates the current war. Back in 2022 they waffled on about times changing and characters like Sabra needing a ‘new approach’. I guess that’s what happens when you make your money through constantly looking back, rather than creating new stuff. You end up rewriting and renewing and erasing the very thing that made a character special in the first place.

Now, the most interesting thing about this is the shallow grasp that Marvel seems to have over current affairs. Israel is out – but Russia is in? But then Sabra is a turncoat Russian, now working for the Americans. Will Haas retain her Israeli accent, or put on a Russian one? The trailer doesn’t let her speak, so we will have to wait for the movie itself to find out.

This certainly can be a valid point made about double-standards if Hollywood's supposedly opposed to Russia based on their attack against Ukraine beginning in 2021, and it makes little difference whether Black Widow and Sabra herself are depicted as defects. And even if Haas does speak with an Israeli accent in the film, again, what if it turns out they stealth negativity to Israel into the screenplay? All that'll do is add insult to injury.

So while Sabra may retain her Israeli background in the upcoming film, that alone doesn't guarantee the 4th Capt. America movie won't be woke, and again, removing her sci-fi power actually diminishes whatever accomplishment this movie could have even further. One more reason why nobody should be fooled into spending money on a film that may not even make use of Steve Rogers anymore.

Labels: Captain America, censorship issues, history, islam and jihad, marvel comics, misogyny and racism, moonbat writers, politics, terrorism, violence, women of marvel